The new facility features state-of-the-art equipment in all areas of family consumer science - from consumer affairs and food science to interior design and child development - as well as architectural and interior design suggestions from students and faculty in the Family Environmental Sciences Department.

"It's an amazing building, and one that reflects the ideas and suggestions of our faculty and students," said Allen Martin, a Family Environmental Sciences professor and director of CSUN's Consumer Resource Center. After more than six years of operating out of a trailer, the center finally moved into a permanent home in Sequoia Hall earlier this year.

The open house is slated to begin at 5:30 p.m. and will feature tours and demonstrations of what the building and its laboratories can do. Sequoia Hall is just east of Oviatt Library, near the center of campus.

Martin, one of the coordinators of the open house, said it is a fortuitous circumstance that the event coincides with Women's History Month.

"The field of family consumer science was started roughly 100 years ago by Ellen Richards, who happened to be the first female graduate of MIT," he said. "Her intent was to improve the quality of life for individuals, families and their communities. Her primary target audience was the immigrants in northeastern large cities - Italians, Jews, Poles, Germans - who came over here seeking a better life but were living in substandard housing, poor sanitation conditions, and forced to eat foods without understanding their nutritional values."

Over the years, he said, the field has grown to encompass all aspects of family life ‹ from fashion and textiles to food science, consumer affairs, interior design and child development.

"Almost every component of family consumer science has some kind of outreach into the community," Martin said.

The Family Environmental Sciences Department's new home was designed by architects Bob Murrin and Tony Mugavero of A.C. Martin, Partners, with input from students and faculty. Sequoia Hall's laboratories in particular reflect student and faculty influences.

The apparel and textile area includes a "mini factory," where students can experience the complete process of manufacturing a piece of clothing. They can design and create fabric, design a garment for the cloth, then put the outfit on a model and onto a retail rack.

The building also has a fully equipped textile science lab in which students and faculty can control humidity and temperature to test the durability of a piece of clothing or fabric.

Sequoia Hall has two fully equipped interior design lofts including a lighting lab in which students can test the appropriate illumination for their projects.

A 125-seat auditorium includes $250,000-worth of audio and visual equipment and a complete demonstration kitchen.

The building's food science lab has state-of-the-art residential and commercial food science equipment as well as a sensory evaluation chamber in which researchers can test consumer acceptance of new foods.

"The building fully illustrates all of Ellen Richard's components for family consumer science and we're very proud of it," Martin said.

For more information about the open house, call (818) 677-3846.

California State University, Northridge has more than 29,000 full- and part-time students and offers 58 bachelor's and 50 master's degrees. Founded on 1958, it is the only four-year university in the San Fernando Valley.